Five missing moon rocks discovered in storage in Minnesota

Hundreds of lunar samples lurk around the planet; we don't know where most are.

The moon rocks recovered in Minnesota. We know the whereabouts of precious few samples.

National Guard

The National Guard discovered a handful of previously missing moon rocks in Minnesota on Monday, according to Mother Nature Network. But the five fragments recovered are only a few of the 270 rocks distributed as goodwill presents among American and international leaders—many are still missing.

Following both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions, the US distributed moon rock samples from the trips to its states and other nations. From Apollo 17 alone, President Nixon handed out 175 one-gram chunks cut from lunar basalt 70017 to each of the 50 states plus 135 other nations. The rocks were embedded in plastic and presented along with souvenir flags that also made the trip to the moon and back, tailored to the recipient state or country. More than a hundred more moon rocks from the Apollo 11 mission were distributed in a similar fashion, five of which were the ones found in Minnesota.

NASA stopped keeping records of the gifts once they had been presented. Predictably, several political entities immediately lost track of them. Others claim to have no records of receiving the rocks at all. Some have been stolen or destroyed, but other rocks have turned up in odd places. In January, TheNew York Times reported on a moon rock given to West Virginia in 1972—it eventually resurfaced in 2010 in the basement of a retired dentist.

Even more rocks from NASA’s own collections, about 517 samples, have been loaned out for research or public display and have gone missing. In 2002, two interns pulled off a heist of 101 grams of moon rocks from a safe in the Johnson Space Center and attempted to sell the samples, valued between $2.5 million and $7 million to collectors. One of the interns, Thad Roberts, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for his role in the caper.

The Apollo 11 samples were found in Minnesota “amongst military artifacts” in storage in St. Paul. The rocks will be transferred to the Historical Society in St. Paul, where they will join their lunar sample brethren on display from the Apollo 17 mission.

Aperture Science is responsible for so many problems. They tried changing their name from Aperture Science Innovators to Aperture Science thinking to throw people off their trail of bad products (seriously, those shower curtains were just defective) and ideas. I can completely understand that they FUBARed the distribution of moon rocks.

My great uncle was the guy who made a machine that could slice the rock super thin to look at under a very high powered micro scope. He was on hand after each space mission to pick up the rocks. They would then pick which rocks to dissect . Because of this he was given a small moon rock when he left NASA. I remember looking and touching it as a kid. he has since given it back when they asked for it. Though I still have many of his photos of the moon rocks. Some of them are from the microscope even. I should dig them out and post them online.

It boggles my mind that the rocks from the moon is given away as gift... to anyone outside the scientific community or research labs.

Shouldn't NASA or other research institutions be given all of the samples so they can do ... and re-do .. numerous experiments. Why are these being given away to anyone at all is beyond me.

Regardless these must be the most expensive rocks every gifted.. and then lost by the recipient of the gifts.

Lets not forget that science was a pretense for the moon missions, not the primary driver. Politics were the primary driver. So, giving gifts makes perfect sense.

Don't forget as well that most people had no idea at the time that moon rocks would continue to be so rare. From what I've learned talking to people alive at the time, there was every expectation moon exploration would be a regular activity from then on out.

So, given that mindset and expectation, a moon rock was just a souvenir, not an expensive scientific sample.

Aperture Science is responsible for so many problems. They tried changing their name from Aperture Science Innovators to Aperture Science thinking to throw people off their trail of bad products (seriously, those shower curtains were just defective) and ideas. I can completely understand that they FUBARed the distribution of moon rocks.

At least they didn't grind them up and mix them into a gel -- they're pure poison.

All I have to say is that there is a whole moon of rocks up there! So what is the damn hold up? Let's get our asses here in America moving and get back to the Moon! Stupid anti-Science/anti-Space Program people are teh SUCKAGE.

One of my physics professors once told me how he took some moon rock samples with him on an airplane, and customs asked him to open up the container to look inside. They asked him what the replacement value of the rocks was (for customs purposes.. I forget what country he was going into)

He explained what they were. They still insisted on a dollar replacement value.

He told them "$50 billion, after inflation", which was his estimate of the cost of the Apollo program.

One of my physics professors once told me how he took some moon rock samples with him on an airplane, and customs asked him to open up the container to look inside. They asked him what the replacement value of the rocks was (for customs purposes.. I forget what country he was going into)

He explained what they were. They still insisted on a dollar replacement value.

He told them "$50 billion, after inflation", which was his estimate of the cost of the Apollo program.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson told a similar story on The Nerdist podcast a couple of weeks ago, about a chunk of meteorite he was carrying through TSA.

At the same time, the society at large (including geologists) returned ~ 50 kg moon meteorites. So the SNR of getting our moon rocks off is > 10.

What I found amazing isn't that valuable gifts are squandered. (In other news, dog bites man.) But that the 1st meeting of planetary science of the lunar record as a record of terran astrobiology had evidence of impactors being inclusions of lunar meteorites. It is a "recursive" record!

"Katherine Joy (University of Manchester) spends her time studying rock samples from the moon. Some of these are Apollo samples, some are meteorites found on the earth. She’s already found some amazing things such as a meteorite in a meteorite. A tiny piece of rock floating around the solar system landed on the moon and got incorporated into the surface layers (the regolith). Another large chunk hit the moon and fractured the regolith sending pieces hurtling into space. One of these lunar fragments, containing the older meteorite within it, fell to the earth as a meteorite.

A portion of her research is identifying these fossil meteorites in samples of regolith. She has enough data to identify a suite of 3.9 Ga meteorites that are noticeably different from modern-day meteorites found on the earth. This work involves painstaking analysis to identify the individual fragments and analyse their chemistry. She is able to distinguish between fragments of the moon and pieces of meteorite – these techniques would allow her to recognise a piece of rock from the ancient earth. So one day, maybe right now, a scientist in Manchester will jump up in excitement, eager to share the amazing fact that they have before them a sample from earth’s early history, a little piece of evidence that’s survived four billion years and two journeys through space to bear witness to an otherwise lost time."

From Apollo 17 alone, President Nixon handed out 175 one-gram chunks cut from lunar basalt 70017 to each of the 50 states plus 135 other nations.

50+135=175?

Given that Minnesota received five such chunks, I suspect the reason that the math doesn't add up may have more to do with sentence structure.

To clarify the numbers and distribution, two sets of lunar sample displays were gifted:

Apollo 11 - 0.05 gram samples divided between 4 to 5 small dust and pebble samples (Minnesota's five "moon rocks" represent one 0.05 sample) encased in an acrylic button and mounted with a flown flag on a wooden podium

Apollo 17 - 1.142 gram samples (cut from a single moon rock, the so-called "goodwill moon rock") encased in an acrylic button and mounted with a flown flag on a wooden plaque.

The Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 gifts were distributed to the 50 states, U.S. territories (including Guam, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands) and foreign nations. The District of Columbia and the Vatican were also on the distribution list. According to NASA records though, the distribution was not the same between gifts (about three years separated the displays being presented, and so changes to relationships and leadership led to the differences).

The entire amount of lunar material gifted between Apollo 11 and Apollo 17, which represents the only time in history the U.S. government has released Apollo-returned pieces of the moon, totals to less than half a pound out of the 842 pounds of rock and dust returned by the six lunar landing missions.

collectSPACE.com maintains the "field guide" to the two sample displays current locations.

Working with the public, readers of collectSPACE.com, museum curators, state officials, and in particular, University of Phoenix graduate students studying under Joseph Gutheinz, a former NASA special agent, collectSPACE has recorded the location of more than 170 of the samples around the country and world.

I got to see and smell a lunar sample way back in the early 70s when they were still relatively new. (Yes, smell.) This through a friendship with a grad student doing work on them at our university.

The thing I remember most, other than being amazed that I was looking, up close, at a piece of the MOON, was the smell. And they were smelly. Something to do with finally being exposed to O2 after so long.

No body bothered with the Apollo 18 movie reference? I know it wasnt a great movie, but come on. How often will we get to use it. There is a reason the rocks go missing.

Judging from the sample in the header photo, I too do believe it's extraterrestrials who are making them disappear. But they're not the ones you suspect. Better look out for a weird monkey-tailed midget child and his blue haired teen girl human aide.

No body bothered with the Apollo 18 movie reference? I know it wasnt a great movie, but come on. How often will we get to use it. There is a reason the rocks go missing.

Judging from the sample in the header photo, I too do believe it's extraterrestrials who are making them disappear. But they're not the ones you suspect. Better look out for a weird monkey-tailed midget child and his blue haired teen girl human aide.

I had to parse that a few times before I caught the reference, but hah! Good eye.